29 June 2011

Everybody must have heard of Mary Mallon aka "Typhoid Mary". She was the woman who wandered around America at the turn of the 20th Century infecting people with Typhoid. She was a carrier, but for some reason the disease never affected her. Eventually the New York Local Authorities got wise to what was happening and she was put into quarantine, which save one ill-advised and quickly aborted attempt to reintegrate her back into society, was where she ultimately died some 30 years later.

Rose gets chatted up again in Rabid, New World Pictures 1977

Tonight I watched Rabid, the 1977 horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg. Can you tell where I'm going with this? Well let's see...

25 June 2011

I got some stick for watching this film. But you know what... I don't care! My wife had been watching the finals of the World Arm-Wrestling Championships live from the Scunthorpe Majestic. But when she popped out some for more beer... I took my chance and dug out a Fred Astaire DVD...

Fred Astaire chills out watching the Xaviar Cugat Bandin You Were Never Lovelier, Columbia 1942

Do you remember when dubbing was considered to be a good thing? I know it has provided some great humour over the years, but really, does it add anything positive to the viewing experience? I was surprised to discover that the version of the Once Upon A Time in China I sat down to watch last night was dubbed. And it wasn't good dubbing. No! This was bad dubbing with dodgy American accents aplenty. I almost switched it off right there and then. In the end I switched the audio so that I was watching it with what I think was dubbed Cantonese complete with English subtitles. It wasn't great, but it felt like the best compromise at the time.

Kung Fu on the Beach in Once Upon a Time in China, Paragon Films 1991

As you may have noticed, I'm having a bit of an Asian film renaissance at the moment, so expect a little flurry of reviews on this subject over the coming posts. Some I'm excited about. Others, like 'Big Tits Zombie', I'm kind of not. But unless I find something else that tickles my fancy in the meantime, you're going to hear my views on each and every one of them... whether I like it or not!

22 June 2011

You know those moments where you just don't know what to be doing with yourself? That was me today as I was agonising over tonight's DVD selection. What was it to be? Horror or Humour? Zombie or Mutant?

Well, in the end I opted for Zombie Humour in the form of the Japanese film: Tokyo Zombie.

This all started a couple of weeks back when I managed to pry her nose out of her Black Belt Karate magazines and we sat down to watch the first series of The Walking Dead. She didn't want to do it... but she did!

5 June 2011

I had a go at scanning in a piece of sheet music this week... and what a journey of discovery it has been! I've scratched the scab off something horrible here and I thought I'd share some of the pain and the learning with you.

# of cats harmed in the making of this blog

WARNING! It is an infringement of copyright to copy by hand or on blackboard, to print or duplicate by any process whatever, or to make lantern slides of any portion of words or music of this copyright blog without written permission of King Uke. Legal action will be taken against offenders.